Study: 2013 Black Friday ‘winners’ offered meaningful, widespread discounts

Ottawa, Canada - The retailers who “won” during the holiday season in 2013 were those that offered meaningful discounts on a sizable number of products on Black Friday instead of discounting a small number of door crashers. According to analysis from 360pi and Retail Systems Research, poor financial performance followed those retailers who discounted during the week leading into Black Friday, and those who kept discounts in place following Cyber Monday generally fared better than those who raised prices.



According to 360pi and Retail Systems Research, retailers should pay heed to the following Black Friday pricing tips:



Paula Rosenblum, managing partner, Retail Systems Research:



• While consumers expect consistent prices across channels, “channel-specific” promotions are a winning behavior.

• Keep up with competitors’ prices as best you can, but use data for decision-making. Try not to be knee-jerk.

• If you haven’t already, take a look back at last year and set your forecasts for this year. Continue to monitor results (and deviations from what you expected.) Adjust prices and plans accordingly.

• Remember, in a race to the bottom, no one wins. Keep prices sharp and differentiate on service and convenience.



Jenn Markey, VP marketing, 360pi:



• Do not raise your Black Friday prices through the weekend and beyond.

• Amazon is under increasing pressure to improve margins - this is a real opportunity for retailers.

• Sell local by taking advantage of zone pricing strategies.

• Know thy competitor – look for time-of week and time of day patterns to exploit.



“Right now, we are seeing a culmination of several pricing strategies heading into the fall and holiday seasons including narrowing price target ranges due to consumer price transparency, escalating price dynamism, the closing price gap with Amazon as well as escalating trends in zone pricing and pricing for time-of-day and day-of-week,” said Markey. “The formula is rather simple, the retailers who can successfully implement these strategies and avoid the price war fallout, will prosper.”